OS 01-03 NEUTROPHIL TO LYMPHOCYTE RATIO IS CLOSELY RELATED WITH BLOOD PRESSURE LEVEL IN HYPERTENSIVE INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES; DATA FROM THE KOREAN REGISTRY OF TARGET ORGAN DAMAGES IN HYPERTENSION (KorHR).

OBJECTIVE: Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a marker of systemic inflammation and predictive of cardiovascular risk. We aimed to determine the relationship between NLR and blood pressure (BP) parameters.

DESIGN AND METHOD: We reviewed data of 670 hypertensive subjects without cardiovascular diseases from the Korean registry of target organ damages in hypertension (KorHR) which were available from March 2013 to February 2016. Among these patients, 202 subjects (aged 45.3 ± 11.1, male n = 141, 69.8%) were available for central blood pressure, urine mircoalbuminuria and NLR data.

RESULTS: Peripheral diastolic BP(r = 0.170, p = 0.018) and central systolic BP(r = 0.154, p = 0.032) correlated positively with log-transformed NLR with adjustment for age, sex, presence of diabetes mellitus(DM) and dyslipidemia, duration of hypertension and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Peripheral systolic BP, brachial pulse wave velocity, peripheral pulse pressure, central augmentation index were not significantly correlated with log-transformed NLR. Multiple regression analysis of log-transformed NLR showed that peripheral diastolic BP was the only significant predictor of log-transformed NLR.(β=0.183, p = 0.009) CONCLUSIONS:: NLR was correlated positively with blood pressure levels. These data suggests higher blood pressure level is associated with increased systemic inflammation response.